Nepal: Performance Art in Kathmandu Valley

Nepal: Performance Art by AnonymousThe essence of Kathmandu Valley - colour, religion and a touch of surreal madness - can be found in the sculptures of its gods and goddesses. They have great beauty by themselves, but it is enhanced by a constant ritual of performance art. The artists are many. The monk, leaving a flower in the lap of the god. The child, hanging sacred threads around the neck and pushing grains of rice in its mouth. The monkey, stealing some a few minutes later. The old lady, smearing red and yellow powder on the gods chakras. The rain, washing the pigments out, creating the nuances of a watercolour. And time, rotting the mandarine offering, turning orange into green. Add bird droppings and the occasional animal blood during a ritual. No single artist ever could reach the result. And in the process the hindu and buddhist gods of Nepal are reincarnated into a fresh work of art every single day.

A holy man sits meditating in a small hilltop shrine at Naubise in the valley of the Mahesh Khola, just west of the Kathmandu Valley. A rack with butter lamps encloses a collection of Shiva tridents and several small reliefs of gods that have received an abundant coating of red powder, just as the forehead of the holy man. Photo Mick Palarczyk.